Police State? 14 Administrative Orders in 2 Weeks

Crackdown against Jewish youths continues in flurry of orders without trial or evidence effectively arresting minors in their homes.

Uzi Baruch, 23/08/15 09:30

Jew arrested in Kiryat Arba (illustration)

Flash 90

Saturday night's administrative order effectively banning a Jewish youth in Ma'ale Adumim to the east of Jerusalem from leaving his house for six months, as well as a similar order against a youth in Ramat Hasharon on the coast, appear to only have been the tip of the iceberg.

Those orders, aside from forbidding entry to Judea and Samaria - other than the Ma'ale Adumim youth's home in his case - also forbade the two from contacting several of their friends.

Administrative orders, a relic from the British mandate, do not require a trial or any evidence, and can be renewed every six months. The orders have almost exclusively been used against Arab terrorists until now.

Following the two orders, police forces overnight raided Od Yosef Chai Yeshiva in Samaria's Yitzhar, which was recently occupied by the Border Patrol for roughly a year, as well as the nearby community of Givat Kumi Ori.

There, they distributed two new administrative orders stipulating nighttime house arrest for six months to two youths, one from Bat Ayin and the other from Alon Shvut.

Aside from the house arrest, the two were forbidden from being in Judea and Samaria other than their parents' homes, and one of them additionally was distanced from Jerusalem. They were likewise forbidden from contacting several of their friends.

The draconian orders didn't stop there though, as on Sunday morning officers gave administrative limitation orders to a married man with children in Geulat Tzion located in the Shiloh Bloc area of northern Samaria.

Similar orders were also given to a Jewish minor from Yad Binyamin who lives in an outpost community in the Binyamin region of Samaria, as well as an adult from Kiryat Arba next to Hevron who lives in Binyamin, and another minor from Amona in Binyamin.

7 orders a week

Around two weeks ago three highly controversial administrative arrests were made against Jewish youths, as well as three limitation orders against minors, which included full house arrest against one of them and nighttime house arrest against the other two, aside from distancing them from Judea and Samaria.

With the addition of the flurry of administrative orders in the last day, a full 14 administrative orders have been issued in the last two weeks, including three administrative arrests. Several of the orders are being petitioned by lawyers from the Honenu legal aid organization.

"The system is under unprecedented pressure and is acting with unacceptable means against residents who are settling the land," said Honenu in a statement.

"We are witnesses to a dramatic increase in the severity and scope of the issuing of administrative orders, something which severely harms the rights of those receiving the orders."

On Saturday night Ze'ev and Gila Slonim, the parents of Evyatar "Avi" Slonim who was one of the youths administratively arrested, wrote to Defense Minister Moshe Ya'alon (Likud) complaining about his recent statements on TV, in which he claimed their son's arrest was "connected" to the lethal arson in the Arab village of Duma last month.

"If there is any sort of suspicion (to us it isn't clear what for, in light of the fact that Avi was with us on vacation in the city of Ma'alot at the time and didn't even know what was happening until his arrest), we demand a valid trial immediately as is custom in any democratic country," wrote the distressed parents, noting Ya'alon's comment contradicted what they were told at the time of the arrest.

The slew of administrative orders come following the Duma arson, although despite the rushed accusations of "Jewish terror," facts of the arson case cast great doubt as to whether Jews were actually involved, particularly in light of reports of a long-standing feud in the Arab town.